1.1 Audit findings
1.1.1 “Management of Governmental Departments Publications”
No complete written instructions: The audit report has released more than 10 years; however, IC only formulated some instructions. For those that are particularly important, such as the number of copies and the specification of publication, were not formulated until July 2019 after the on-site audit was basically completed, which reflected the slow progress in the formulation of the instructions.
Excessive printing of publications: After the release of audit report, IC stated that it had instructed its subsidiary units verbally to control the number of copies. Since the average number of copies printed between 2011 and 2017 had decreased, and the inventory of publications of more than 1,000 copies were largely reduced through distribution or sale in recent years, the number of copies remaining was not large; however, the improvement result had defect as IC did not formulate a written instruction on the number of copies for many years.
No procedure for managing the publications in stock: In 2014, IC formulated the “Proposal for processing remaining publications”, which defined the publications that have been published over 10 years as remaining publications, and their processing ways were through discount sale, free distribution and destruction when the publication was in poor condition. However, there were problems in the implementation of the proposal, including: i) unsatisfactory sales of those publications held in stock for a long time; ii) the destruction of publications proposed in 2015 was still not carried out even when the audit was basically completed; iii) the “Proposal for processing remaining publications” did not mention how to deal with the publications that could not be sold or distributed. By the end of 2018, the IC’s book warehouse in the industrial building still had 302,873 publications published over 10 years, accounting for more than 84% of the stock; this high number reveals that the result of improvement is unsatisfactory.
Large discrepancy in the costs of house programs: Regarding the printing of house programs, IC stated that the reduction of the printing costs and the number of copies through inquiring prices from three companies, printing in paperback form and providing programs in electronic version. However, these measures could not solve the problem of large discrepancy in costs effectively. After comparing the printing costs of the programs with the same number of copies in 2018, CA found that seven out of the 11 groups had a difference between the highest and the lowest printing costs of more than double, which was similar to the audit findings in 2008. This shows that there are still large cost variations between different programs due to the lack of instructions regulating the printing specification.
Inventory management: since IC’s book warehouses do not formulate a unified instruction on inventory, so each warehouse can establish its own inventory frequency. However, the audit found that among the five warehouses, even though one has already established instruction, it did not carried out inventory regularly, and one has never set the inventory frequency.
There was no evaluation on the publications launched: The audit report has been published for more than 10 years; however, IC did not establish a formal evaluation procedure for the publications launched until the on-site audit work was basically finished, so the result of improvement is unsatisfactory.
Excessive number of copies of ceremonial publications and there was room to save the printing cost: As the production of lai si envelopes and table calendars have stopped since 2012 and 2015 respectively, the related problems were improved.
Not enough attention dedicated to the publishing activity: IC has already timely followed up the implementation of publishing activity, so the improvement is made.
1.1.2 “The Supervision on Financial Subsidy for Private Schools”
Supervision of DSEJ on the implementation of the obligations of schools that receive the free education subsidies: When DSEJ verified the annual accounts of 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 academic years, there were five supplementary documents still expressed as items of miscellaneous and other income, which were impossible to identify the nature of the charges. However, the school supervisor only followed up by having telephone conversations with schools without requesting further documents for verification according to the established procedures of DSEJ, reflecting that the improvement mechanism was not fully implemented and the result is unsatisfactory.
For the refund of the 26 items of improper charges indicated in the 2015 audit report, DSEJ stated that it had refunded three of them, while others were not been fully refunded because some people were unable to contact with, some did not collect or declare not to collect after informing them. In this regard, DSEJ has clearly required schools not to count the relevant charges into income; however, CA found that DSEJ did not follow up other academic years that were not within the scope of audit and whether there were improper charges that should have been refunded or not, so it failed to ensure that the charges in other academic years were appropriate, reflecting DSEJ did not fully follow up on the refund problem.
Use of information related to private school subsidies by DSEJ and the Fund: DSEJ and the Education Development Fund set up a working group to follow up on the above issues, and established different information management systems in phases. Since the database of the subsidy application platform and the subsidy report platform already included all types of subsidies of the School Development Plan, and DSEJ could be able to acquire the subsidy information of the Fund directly from the electronic platforms, therefore, it shows that the related problem were improved.
1.1.3 “Attendance & Supervision of Public Security Forces Staff”
Supervision on working hour records of staff was defective: CPSP adopted the “Electronic attendance system” to regulate the attendance of staff; however, although the system could ensure the correctness of attendance records, and completely recorded the attendance information, CA found that CPSP still continued to exempt the staff of the Command department and the majority of senior staff from the supervision of attendance system. Therefore, CPSP still did not formulate comprehensive and effective measures to improve this problem.
Weekly working hours was lower than legal requirement: The current legislation requires that the statutory working hours of military staff are 44 hours per week. According to CPSP, it gradually implemented the legislation as required from February to July 2019, and tried to meet this requirement. However, according to the audit result from the samples of five departments, only two of them adopted effective measures to ensure the legal requirement on weekly working hours was met. In addition, CPSP exempted the majority of senior staff from marking their attendance; as a result, it was difficult to verify whether the weekly working hours of the relevant staff measured up to the legal requirement. Therefore, CPSP only formulated some measures to improve this problem, but could not resolve it comprehensively.
1.1.4 “University of Macau Staff Housing Allocation Regime — University of Macau’s Zhuhai Research Institute — University of Macau Development Foundation”
Formulation of the regulations and policies of staff housing allocation regime: Although UM already published the staff housing allocation regime in the Official Gazette of Macao Special Administrative Region, it did not publish the Regulations of Personnel Affairs because it still considered that the Regulations did not have external effects. However, according to the doctrine, if the regulation regulates the legal employment relationship between the personnel and the Administration, as well as the rights and obligations of both parties, it will be externally effective. Analyzing the content of the Regulations of Personnel Affairs of UM that regulate the recruitment, responsibilities of teaching staff, duties of administrative staff, remuneration, job allowance, benefits, etc., it is applicable to regulate the legal employment relationship between personnel and administration, as well as the rights and obligations of both parties; therefore, it has effect not only to UM staff, but also to other individuals, so UM should publish this Regulation in the Official Gazette according to the rule. This reflects that UM still did not take comprehensive and effective measures to improve this problem.
Principle of the staff housing allocation: UM has already regulated that applicant who must not own any property in Macao or be provided with any forms of housing by other public entities in Macao is eligible to apply for renting staff housing. Meanwhile, there are measures to timely follow up on the situation that occupant purchases residential property or is offered housing by the Government in order to ensure that only those who meet the conditions can continue to rent the staff housing. In addition, for those who fail to meet the conditions after moving into the housing unit, the regulation requires that the occupant should vacate the housing unit within six months, so this problem are improved.
1.1.5 “Using and Managing Tools for Prosecuting Traffic Violations”
Citations management system: Currently, the citation is basically issued through the electronic citation device and will be automatically recorded in the system, so the possibility of losing citations is low. Regarding to the extremely small number of traditional handwritten citations, although CPSP would record and count the citations issued by the law enforcement units every month, it could not prevent the loss of citations that were issued but not used. Therefore, although CPSP has basically improved the problem of the citations management system, there are still deficiencies after the improvement.
Examination of images captured by the electronic monitoring systems: CPSP has already established a thorough mechanism for reviewing and verifying the images captured by the electronic monitoring systems, so this problem are improved.
1.1.6 “Social Benefits and Management of the Business Trips of the Personnel of TDM - Television of Macau”
Scope of the medical care of the Chief Executive Officer was not clearly defined: From December 2011, the daily management of TDM has changed to be executed by the Executive Committee instead of the Chief Executive Officer. For medical benefits of the members of the Executive Committee, TDM has already revised in June 2011 and adjusted to be consistent with other TDM employees. Therefore, TDM has already made improvement to the relevant problem.
1.1.7 “Public Service of Road Mass Transport”
Work of DSAT on reviewing the service fees paid to the bus companies: Between December 2014 and mid-to-late 2015, DSAT completed the review on the service fees paid to bus companies in phases, and recovered the public funds overpaid to bus company A and B. However, regarding to the service fees unduly paid to bus company C, since bus company C filed for bankruptcy in October 2013, DSAT was unable to lodge a claim for the overpaid service fees during the period defined by law, but later it also did not consult the legal advice on the recovery of the fees or carry out feasible remedial work, failing to protect the claim. Therefore, there are deficiencies in the work of DSAT on reviewing the service fees paid to the bus companies.
